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This week we will continue with storytelling and painting, masks and puppets. I hope we will have longer outdoor time too

Last week of April

My, time is moving on. These next few weeks we will consolidate all the skills learned and refined throughout the year.

We will concentrate on story-telling – reading and listening, discussing, predicting, assessing. We will paint narratives and perform short plays. This will continue through next month and tickets, props etc will be made.

Listening to sounds and begin building 2 and 3 letter words.

We will fold paper, make patterns with dye and look for the symmetry there. The children are now carefully matching the corners to fold accurately. Next month I will introduce origami.

For snack please think of cooking or baking. Maybe we can picnic outside!

Welcome back to preschool!

I hope you all had a lovely week of rest and fun. I have planned some new activities for the children to develop their skills, explore different materials and share their ideas.

To bring our bulletin board up to date we will all contribute parts to celebrate Spring. A loop Garland Caterpillar, butterflies, blossoms, chicks and new growth. We will plant seeds, water them and watch them grow.

First week of April

Art and Math

We have looked at various life cycles the last few weeks and noticed the changes from week to week or season to season. Our caterpillars are at the pupal stage and will soon be butterflies. Our last art project on this theme will be symmetrical painting of butterflies. Blobs of paint between folded paper, slide hands over, and open to see a butterfly! When they dry they can be further decorated or turned into a kite. Lots of possibilities here.

Next we will look at mirrors – at ourselves, objects, writing. We will draw through a line, this is not easy and will take some practice.

Science and Engineering

Ramps are lots of fun. Speeding cars whoosh down. We will look at angles, height and stability and think about the energy needed to go up or down. Kids, water, toys!!

Butterflies and Letters

The butterfly caterpillars arrived last week and the children saw them grow from one day to the next. Monday morning will be exciting as there will be even bigger changes and soon the caterpillars will build their chrysalis. This science lesson for the children will last several weeks ending in the butterflies emerging from the chrysalis. Each morning at school you can ask your child about the changes they see and remind them not to touch the containers.

The easiest way for a child to start being interested in letters is to learn to write their name. I am continuing to help them do this by having them write their name or some letters from their name on their papers and creations. It is important to let the children do this themselves. In the classroom and outside they are encouraged to write names and/or three letter words with shells, sticks, and beads.

The science lesson for the children will be learning about the changing of the season to spring. Language and Literacy learning will include listening to fiction and non-fiction about spring themes as well through rhymes and songs. This is also where the beginning of math comes in with clapping and keeping time to the songs.

One of the most interesting things we will do is learn about the life cycle of the butterfly. You can look around the classroom and see the many ways in which the life cycle is presented over the month.

There are two great ways you can help with the theme of spring: 1) as snack parent you can choose something like an apple and discuss its life cycle, while the children eat 2) you can talk with your child about these ideas and help point out the changes you see happening around you.

Looks like the journal Pediatrics has published results of a study on children who are picky eaters.  If you are concerned about your child’s diet, be sure to talk to the pediatrician!

http://www.today.com/health/picky-eating-linked-psychiatric-problems-kids-study-finds-t35961

The evidence just keeps on coming.  We need to hold back and allow children the time and space for them to do what they already know how to do, and what they almost know how to do.

Looks like an very interesting book!

Play for young children is not recreation activity,… It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity…. Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem-solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization-of-ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.

–James L. Hymes, Jr., child development specialist, author

 

From a terrific web site – www.zerotothree.org.

Read and pass along to parents of young children!